When I was at the Italian bakery, I picked up a dozen cookies for a “cookie party”, you know, like when you finally get a chance to sit down and watch TV and relax after a long week, perfect time for cookies. I get excited about little things, hence calling a plate of cookies a cookie party.

I wanted to use a special plate, so I brought out my Grandma’s green Jadeite Jane Ray pattern Fire King plate, it is one of the few things I have of hers, I never use it because I’m worried I’ll break it. It’s pretty old now, they were made in the 1950s.

Back to the cookies…

Here we have 3 cherry twist (center, pink), 3 lemon drops (middle, left and right side), 3 raspberry Linzer (bottom left, top right, they have a small hole in them), and 3 raspberry and almond sandwich cookies dipped and sprinkled in chocolate (sprinkled ones).

My favorite were the sprinkled ones, they were delicious, the chocolate dipped part with the sprinkled actually tasted like donuts – yum. Lemon drops were good, tart but sweet. The cherry twist lacked cherry taste. The Linzer was okay, very crumbly and quite dry. I’d probably get the sprinkled one and lemon drops again, the others were okay, nothing very special unfortunately.

I still had a lot of fun sampling them!

I was thinking to get some Stella D’Oro cookies next time, they make a delicious Swiss Fudge drop cookie. Their cookies are generally dry, like you would imagine to go with coffee or tea service, or for breakfast.

I never had torrone before in my life, not until last year when I saw it at the Italian market and tried it. The La Florentine Torrone was the first kind I ever bought, and I still think it’s the best, or should I say, my personal favorite.

If you have never tried torrone, it’s like a fluffy and chewy nougat, it can have other things it in like almonds, pistachios, or in this case hazelnuts. There are a variety of kinds, so be sure to read the labels. A lot of them are NOT covered in chocolate, this one is and it is amazing. I highly recommend getting the chocolate covered one to try first. Label says it’s all natural with no preservatives. I absolutely love this stuff.

This bar of La Florentine Torrone cost $5.79 plus tax. It says it is 4 servings. Definitely worth the cost of admission as they say. You’d easily pay that or more for a restaurant dessert on a night out.